BARKLEY AND WILSHERE CAN STILL BE THE FUTURE
But first they will have to deliver for their clubs
MANY times over recent years we have looked at these two players and thought they might be the future of English football. They are players with technique to match some of the best, instinctively comfortable on the ball and capable of producing something special. And how we crave players like that as a nation.
Yet now Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley can’t even make the England squad, let alone the team, and in Wilshere’s case he has to go out on loan to a club who may well be involved in a relegation battle, just to get a game.
Of course, there are different reasons for their exclusion from Sam Allardyce’s first squad and, for Wilshere, it is perhaps understandable that he chose Bournemouth over the challenge of Roma or AC Milan. After all, we need to know if he can actually play 30 or 40 games a season. Injuries have blighted his young career.
However, there is no hiding from the fact that he is longer a young, promising player. He’s 25 in January. Nor is Ross Barkley in that category any more. He will be 23 in December and approaching the time where you would expect him to exert maximum impact.
And though it might seem dispiriting to see him left out of an England squad, you can understand Sam Allardyce’s reasons for doing so. Yes, he’s had a good start to the season but I remember watching him this time last year at Southampton and being impressed as he was instrumental in Everton’s 3-0 win.
But he couldn’t sustain that form and dropped off alarmingly at the end of the campaign. I think for Ross it is a psychological challenge. When you’re a young player and looked up to as the key creative player in the team, you can sometimes heap pressure on yourself.
You have that feeling that you have to produce something extraordinary every match; that everyone is looking to you to make a breakthrough. But of course it’s never like that. Even Lionel Messi has quiet games for Barcelona.
The trick is to keepp doing the simple things for the team so even if you don’t feel you’re on top form, you’re still contributing. I made the Spurs side as a teenager and very quickly became e the player people looked to for something different. But in team meetings, my team-matest would take the pressure off me. They would tell me to keep playing my midfield role, closing people down, playing simple balls, wha whatever. They trusted that in doing that, eventually s something different might come. My feeling is that Ross has to do s something similar to t take the weight off his s shoulders. Even if a ga game is going against you you, you can keep doing the simpl simple things well. After all, you onlyl need one magic moment to make a difference. Ross needs to find a way to ease that mental pressure he is putting on himself.
In doing so, I think he’ll start to deliver over a season. No doubt, that is the kind of consistency that Sam Allardyce wants to see.
I’m also hopeful because both Ross and Jack have managers who will understand them. Clearly Eddie Howe’s influence and his commitment to play in a certain way have been hugely influential in persuading Jack to go to Bournemouth. With regular football and a role that allows him some more freedom, he ought to thrive. Obviously there will be a gear change from Arsenal, who dominate the majority of their games, to Bournemouth, who will be without the ball at times. But knowing that they are committed to playing possession football means Wilshere still should have plenty of opportunities to shine.
And if there was ever a manager who understood the need to be creative but also the moment when to play it simple, it is Ronald Koeman. Although he played from the back, he absolutely understands creative players. Coming through the Dutch school at Ajax and Barcelona, he could hardly fail to appreciate that. Yet he can be pragmatic when he needs to be and Ross will surely benefit from the understanding his manager brings.
I know some people will see it as a regressive step that Sam Allardyce has dropped these two creative players in his first squad. But I don’t. I’m pretty sure that Sam will want to incorporate them into future squads. Obviously, if they’re performing well at Bournemouth and Everton and still being ignored, then that would be a clearer signal that they’re not wanted. I’d be surprised
if that was the case. I’m hopeful that they can play their way into the team. But it’s more down to the players to prove it, than the manager just to pick them on reputation. I don’t believe that we’ve seen the best of Wilshere and Barkley.
This season we might begin to get a fuller picture of what they can be. They don’t need to burden themselves with living up to the tag of being England’s future. Just get a decent season under their belt. That way, step by step, they can begin to fulfil their potential.